


Victorious

by Katrina



Series: Genprompt Bingo [5]
Category: Bleach
Genre: But I had fun anyway, Cliche as Hell, Community: genprompt_bingo, Gen, all the aus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:15:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24010414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katrina/pseuds/Katrina
Summary: Urahara ended up in Ichigo's life a lot. Sometimes he meant disaster. And sometimes he meant victory.
Series: Genprompt Bingo [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1714927
Kudos: 33
Collections: Gen Prompt Bingo Round 18





	Victorious

**Author's Note:**

> Last one for my Genprompt Bingo set. It's a lot cliche, but I had fun writing it anyway.

The first time Ichigo saw Urahara, it wasn’t when most people thought. 

Oh, he didn’t recognize the man when he first met him with Rukia. Not at first. But that stupid hat tickled at his brain, something about it made him sure he had seen the man before. At first, he thought maybe it was just in passing or something, a hat that caught his eye as they passed each other in the street. 

But it didn’t take him long to figure out Urahara was rarely out during the day. When he left the shop, typically, it was during the night. 

Or when a nine year old had just lost his mother. 

It was a hazy memory. Ichigo was pretty sure he’d been drugged. Or maybe trauma had produced its own version of mind numbing dullness. Either way, he had been on his bed. The girls were around, probably being watched over by someone else. But his father had been there. The man’s voice had been rough, choked. He had just lost his wife. The love of his life. And he almost lost his son, his firstborn, at the same time.

Some days, Ichigo wondered if he had worried more about the loss of his weapon. 

Those thoughts were quickly shook off. Isshin was not the best father, but he did love his children. Even if he was ripping their soul to shreds, he has stood there and done it with clear eyes and an awareness that his son was even more of a protector than Isshin was. He knew what Ichigo’s choice would be. It had still been a choice, however.

But at that moment in time, with a large hand petting his hair, Ichigo hadn’t cared about the future. He only knew that he had lost the heart of his world, and it was all his fault. If he hadn't tried to help that ghost, his mother wouldn't have died. 

Ichigo remembered wishing he could have died as well. 

But there was a new voice, calm, soft. It was new to him, and Ichigo had opened his eyes enough to see a striped hat. Then a hand he didn’t know, paler than his father’s, had covered his eyes and the voice murmured something. 

That was Ichigo’s first meeting with Urahara that he remembered. 

Since then, he had associated the man with a variety of victories. Of wins and losses-turned-wins that left him stronger and more in touch with the people of the dead than anyone living. 

But that first association was with death and loss. 

So Urahara’s arrival when Ichigo was betrayed was not a surprise. Not as large one, at least. 

The last time Ichigo saw Urahara while he was alive was a mess. The man arrived too late. Almost. The knife had been slid home, but the former captain had stopped the person holding it from finishing some chant. She had lost the ability to speak, along with several body parts, without warning. Then Urahara had caught Ichigo, the young man sliding towards the ground. 

“The others got your sisters to safety,” he said. “I’m not sure about your friends.”

He wasn’t putting pressure against Ichigo’s injury, or attempting any healing kido. That told Ichigo everything he needed to know about that attack, other than one thing. 

Narrowed eyes and a scowl asked the question for him, as Ichigo couldn’t catch the breath to ask it. There was a flicker of something in Urahara’s eyes. “Ichigo, do you trust me?”

His first name, so easily used, and an actual question. 

Ichigo nodded. 

The next moment, he was outside of his body, standing next to Urahara as they watched the shell that used to be Ichigo in the living world died. Ichigo looked at the older man then. 

“If you were already outside the body when it died, it disrupts the typical signals sent out. They’ll know you are dead, but it won’t register that you need a shinigami to appear to help you along your way.”

They looked at each other again for a long moment as Ichigo waited. He had learned patience, at long last. 

“Your latest victory apparently frightened the Central 46 too much,” Urahara said finally. “Yoruichi got the message to me, and I sent those Visoreds on earth still after your sisters, to protect them.”

Urahara swallowed, expression going hard, tight. His fingers flexed on his sword, still damp with the blood of the second division agent he had killed. “Your entire bloodline has been condemned. They were to wipe out you and your sisters, as well as your father. But you and your sisters were the primary targets. They know your strength, and there is every potential for your sisters or their children to develop the same sorts of powers. You were sentenced to be killed, and your souls rendered down to the most basic parts and each piece purified.”

Now the anger was gone from Urahara’s face, sickness replacing it. Ichigo could guess why. That way laid the death of a soul. He may not be a shinigami, but Ichigo liked to read. And Urahara had plenty of books around. So he had learned a few nastier things than expected.

“And now?” Ichigo had been engaged, planning on getting married. Now he was dead, due to a corrupt system being corrupt, again. 

In his soul, the flare of anger at the injustice of that was not just the remnants of the hollow. It was his own anger, always a dangerous thing. Ichigo had a temper. But, now, it was tamed a bit by learning. By patience. 

“Now, I help hide your sisters,” Urahara said, voice serious. It happened so rarely that it always took Ichigo by surprise. “And I ask you what it is you,” there was an emphasis on that word. “Want to do.”

There were so many things that ran through Ichigo’s mind. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes to focus for a moment. “I need to vanish. As much as possible.”

Urahara nodded. “We can do that.”

That was the last night Ichigo saw the man in a long time. They had worked on a thing to help hide Ichigo’s powers, and Ichigo had left that night. He hadn’t even had time to say goodbye to his sisters in person. He had left them a video, though. And a letter.

Then he had gone to the edge, where the Rukongai was weak, and the hollows slipped in all the time. Ichigo’s control wasn’t always the greatest, even with the device from Urahara. So he blended in there. 

Ichigo had never intended to lead any groups. When he would go to fight before, it was his friends moving to help him rather than him trying to lead them. But he could learn, and the Seireitei had made a lot of enemies. And Ichigo had been happy to help organize things and even lead the first attacks. 

The next time he saw Urahara, it was when Ichigo’s people had taken the outer edges of the Seireitei. Half the shinigami had switched sides when Central 46 had gotten even more outrageous. They had tried to have several high ranking members people in the squads arrested and executed. 

None of those got very far, however. Ichigo never passed over an chance to fuck with Central’s plans. And the grateful people who joined him were always a help. 

Watching both the Sixth and the Thirteenth bail and join up when they tried to execute both Rukia and Renji was amusing. And the Eighth had been happy to stick around and pass information along. All on the orders of the new Captain-Commander. 

Who knew that they had been a more subtle spy division than the Second?

But when Ichigo walked into the Seireitei, the gates broken behind him, he looked around, seeing friends looking back at him. Around him, streaming in to start the fortification before they moved closer to the Central 46 chambers, was the army he had built.

In front of him was Urahara, looking pleased. 

“About time you got here,” said the older man, a faint smile curling the corner of his mouth.

Ichigo smiled back. 

“Say the same about you,” Ichigo added. “Want to help take out the same sort of people who keep turning against us again and again?”

“You invite me to the most entertaining events, Kurosaki-san,” Urahara said cheerfully, hand resting on the Benihime. 

Well, on to victory for them, then. Urahara being there meant loss far too often. But he meant victory as well. 

Giving Zangetsu a twirl, Ichigo started forward again. “Let’s go murder some people who deserve it.”


End file.
